| A “pox party” is where parents deliberately infect their kids with chicken pox so they’ll become immune sooner than later. |
We had planned to have two one-child families over for dinner Saturday evening, but Family A decided to send their kid to a pox party earlier in the week. My kids had the vaccination, but we felt it was a little awkward to potentially expose the Family B’s kid without everyone agreeing first. So, we rescheduled Family A, which is too bad because they’re the ones who had requested I make clam chowder.
I wasn’ t sure if they’d have an issue with bacon, so I fixed it separately, poised to add it to the chowdah if they were cool with it. And if they weren’t, I get four strips of bacon for me. While we were standing around, I was hot-dogging by eyeballing my measurements. Shake of this, sprinkle of that, pinch of that other thing. As I was adding the last herb, oregano, the kids did something loud that distracted their attention. And apparently mine, for I had opened up the “scoop” side of the monster-Costco sized container and dropped about a half cup of it onto my bubbling masterpiece.
Without uttering a single profane word, I took the pot over to the sink and scraped out the congealing mass of seasoning, hoping that I got enough of it. The other adults went into the living room.
Sinced the kids won’t eat anything with more than one seasoning, I started the kids pasta boiling. The combination of two meals meant I didn’t have much time to actuallly interact with Family B until dinner was ready.
The clam chowder was excellent, well below oregano-toxicity. However, I wasn’t done with my social faux pas for the night: I forgot to pre-set the table with utensils. Are you supposed to laugh, or just merely be moritified if when you realize your guest is attempting to eat salad with a soup spoon?